vestigial

adjective

ves·ti·gial ve-ˈsti-jē-əl

-jəl

of a body part or organ : remaining in a form that is small or imperfectly developed and not able to function : being or having the form of a vestige (see vestige sense 2)

a vestigial tail

Kiwis lack an external tail, and their vestigial wings are entirely hidden beneath a curious plumage—shaggy, more like fur than feathers …—

Stephen Jay Gould

: remaining as the last small part of something that existed before

It's held in the Gold Room, a vestigial ballroom of the kind that every downtown hotel uses for banquets and conventions.—

William Zinsser

Later colonial laws … prohibited even speaking the Pequot language, now long dead but for a few vestigial words.—

Kirk Johnson

vestigially

ve-ˈsti-jē-ə-lē

-jə-lē

adverb

Examples of vestigial in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

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One point of interest was the discovery of small vestigial teeth in the whale’s upper jaw. —

Eli Wizevich, Smithsonian Magazine, 16 Dec. 2024 In fact, these vestigial teeth slowly die and fall out as the animal ages. —

Scott Travers, Forbes, 26 Sep. 2024 Some readers already agreed with them; others had a vestigial commitment that was just beginning to loosen. —

Gideon Lewis-Kraus, The New Yorker, 9 Sep. 2024 Language is both rule and deviation, langue and parole, but the rule retains a vestigial presence in every deviation. —

Diedrich Diederichsen, Artforum, 1 Sep. 2024 See all Example Sentences for vestigial